True or False Friday: Moving a .COM to a .ORG

Q: True or false, it is possible to change your website’s domain extension from a .COM to a .ORG and preserve all the rankings and PageRank?

A: True, it is possible and can be done with a 301 redirect, and a bit of time-consuming work. There are some efforts to consider though. Google Webmaster Central has a step-by-step outline with tips that will help you retain your site’s ranking in Google’s search results. These steps, are often overlooked and then identified when it is too late. My basic answer is to do a master 301 redirect and start to contact all the back links that matter to me and ask them to change the URL to my old site to my new site. Over time, I would probably also write some specific content and add it to the old URL so it ranks independently of my new one. Also, of course, add information on how to find my new site.